New Internationalist, Sept 2003 i360 p8(1) 
Make a killing. (Seriously ... You couldn't make this stuff up) 


Make a killing 

A new initiative called AmericanActTonMarket.org recently landed in the 
Seriously inbox. It was inspired by the Pentagon's recent idea for a futures 
market in terror and war, which it had to retract amid public outcry. Now a 
consortium of computer scientists, political scientists and others has taken 
up the idea with an online futures market in White House behaviour. 

'The Pentagon felt that a market in terrorism futures could predict 
terrorism,' said AAM spokesperson Tad Hirsch. 'If the market is indeed such 
a powerful tool, then it should be directed at the most urgent question 
facing the world: what will the White House do next?' 

The website www.AmericanActionMarket.org will offer various categories of 
'futures' that users can bet on and trade, including: 

Who will be the next foreign leader to move from the CIA payroll to the 
White House 'most wanted' list? 

What will be the next major White House lie to break, and how will the White 
House attempt to control it? Will the attempt be successful? 

Which corporation will be next to see its close relationship to the White 
House erupt in scandal? 

AAM will also allow users to place and trade longer-term wagers on current 
or past scenarios that are in the short term unverifiable because of White 
House secrecy, and which will only be proved or disproved via impeachment 
hearings, journalistic sleuth-work, and so forth. For example: 

Was the invasion of Afghanistan planned from the start as a stepping-stone 
to an attack on Iraq? 

How important a long-term factor in the 2003 Iraq war was Iraq's expulsion 
of US and British oil companies from Iraq between 1972 and 1975? 

As evidence accumulates to prove or disprove a particular future, its market 
value will change; this change may serve analysts as an indicator of a 
scenario's likelihood, even if a final resolution of the bet is never 
achieved. AmericanActionMarket.org will be fully functional and ready for 
bets on 1 October, the day the Pentagon's now-defunct futures market was 
scheduled to open. 

Seriously hopes to make a killing.